PO WER B EYO ND CO M PA RE
Whale Song BY DOMINIQUE SINAGRA ILLUSTRATED BY JENNIFER GARWOOD
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his story begins with a seemingly straight forward narrative and voice – matriarchal bitterness and the struggle between generations of women. The story also seems linear and autobiographical, almost following the tone of an essay. As the piece continues, it becomes magic realism, no longer based in a linear structure. The second half of the piece is inspired by Women Who Run with Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, who uses myth and fairytale from different cultures to explore the idea and archetype of the Wild Woman, the source of life, and the bestower of life and death. When I write I scratch and bite myself. I inherited this behaviour from my mother, whose favourite pastime is china hurling and my grandmother who pulls her hair out and shrieks the way some people go jogging; it clears her mind and refreshes her. My matriarchal line is a rageful one. We are prone to flying off the handle, devouring nearby heads, and when there is no head nearby, we’ll try to devour our own. Many women, from my observations, usually halt before the steps of power. Walking up to these is not the problem, nor is recognizing them, but at the threshold, that final step, the history screaming in their bones, usually tightens and pull them to standing, and unconscious petrification. In this moment women usually do one of two things. They either grow very loud or very quiet. We tend to dance between both. We run and hide, avoiding our bills, that phone call, the dishes, and then when, inevitably the phone still rings, the bills add up and the
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